The Many Faces of James Potter
by lurv2boogie
Summary: Highlights of James and Lily's relationship, starting from the first meeting right through to October 31st 1981. Is James really as arrogant as he seems? Or is that just one of his many faces?
1. In Which There is Discrimination

**A/N: So, after a shamefully long absence, I am back with a vengeance! First fanfic in quite a while... and will have its funny moments. Hope you enjoy!**

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**First Year**

It had started out as no more than a word.

"Peacocks."

Lily Evans looked up wildly from her Transfiguration notes, a curling tendril of brilliant red hair sweeping across the middle of her face from one side. She arranged her face into a confused expression, so that her eyebrows met in the middle, perched like arches over the leafy green of her eyes.

"I'm sorry?"

"Peacocks," James Potter reiterated.

"Is that supposed to mean something to me?"

James sighed a long, exasperated sigh. "Percy the Wild? Eighteenth century wizard? He turned his cutlery set into an army of peacocks."

Lily stared at him blankly, genuinely confused. "What are you talking about?"

He laughed a strange, strangled sort of laugh, and pointed at the parchment that was sitting on Lily's lap. She followed the direction of his finger downwards, and looked towards her lap.

"Oh," she said weakly. "Transfiguration. Right. Thanks."

"And here," James continued, indicating with his arm still outstretched, "it's supposed to read 'a' 'n' 'i' 'm' 'a' 'g' 'u' 's', not 'a' 'n' 'y'… Don't worry about it though, First Year's supposed the hardest, relatively, because you're just getting used to it all."

Lily bent her head back over her notes, letting her hair fall free down the side of her neck and cover her face. There was an awkward silence, a pause, before James sat beside her. The fire of the Gryffindor Common Room cackled welcomingly.

"My name's Potter. James."

"I know who you are," Lily said, not missing a beat and keeping her eyes steadily trained on the notes in front of her. Another awkward silence, and then she heard James draw in a breath beside her.

"So, do you like it here?" he asked her, playing casually with the sleeve of his robes.

"Do I like what here?"

"Living here. The ghosts. The teachers. I don't know, the bloody giant squid. Just… do you like it here?"

Lily sighed before looking up from her parchment – this _James Potter_ boy clearly wasn't going to leave her alone any time soon.

"I don't mind it here. I miss my family though. It's- it's a bit of a shock."

"Really? I found it really easy to settle in."

"It's just that… well, I'd never even _heard _of Hogwarts before I got my letter. I kept thinking that it was a mistake, they'd sent it to the wrong address or something."

"Ah," James said, nodding wisely. "You're a muggle-born."

"What? What's a _muggle_?"

"It's someone who's not born magical. Your parents are muggles, so you're muggle-born."

"That seems rather discriminatory."

"What?"

"Discriminatory. It means… sort of unfairly singling out someone or something because of a certain aspect about them that's different from you."

"Oh. Big word. Right."

"Thank you, James" she said, because she didn't know what else to say. "So… what are you?"

James drew himself up to his full height, sticking his chest out proudly. "I'm pure blood. 'Bout ten generations of wizards in my family have come to Hogwarts."

"Pure blood?"

"Yeah. My parents were both magical. But… well, some people say they're pure-blood like it makes them better than other people. People who aren't pure-blood."

"That's awful," she said, and then, as an afterthought, "_That's_ discrimination."

"Oh," and James nodded wisely. "You know Sirius Black?"

"The tall boy with the dark hair?"

"Yeah, him. His whole family is really anti-muggle. Don't know how he ended up in Gryffindor, but it wouldn't surprise me at all if it turned out he'd managed to curse the sorting hat so that he could bring down Gryffindor from the inside. His family's been here as long as mine has, and all of them have been in Slytherin apart from him."

"Really? But he seems so friendly."

At this, James' eyes darkened and his brow seemed to become a lot more heavyset.

"He's not."

"You don't know that, though."

"I don't need to know that. I know his family."

Lily looked highly affronted at this statement. "Well that makes you just as bad as all those people who target muggle-borns."

"What?" James yelped. "I'm not disc… dis… I don't make fun of people different from me!"

"Isn't that what you were just doing?"

"Yeah, well, Black's different. Black deserves it. He's almost as bad as Severus Snape." James spat the last two words of his sentence with an uncharacteristically vindictive tone.

"Severus Snape? What are you talking about?"

"Oh, Lily, wait till you meet him, he's got the most greasy hair and the biggest nose and _everyone_ knows he's from a really evil family, they all support You-Know-Who, and-"

"Well, the Severus I know isn't evil, or greasy… and no, I-Don't-Know-Who. Who's You-Know-Who?"

"You haven't heard of… well, no, I suppose muggles wouldn't really know about Him…" James paused, taking a moment to think about what he was going to say. "My dad says You-Know-Who's just a right bastard-"

"James!"

"Oh, right," James blushed, ducking his head apologetically. "Sorry. But he really is, Lily. He's this really evil wizard, he was in Slytherin actually, and he's killed heaps of people and he's got these people who work for him, other dark wizards called 'Death Eaters', and-"

"Death Eaters?"

"Yeah, Lily, they're really scary. They do all his work for him, basically, and help him find people and stuff… but don't worry," he added hastily after spotting the alarmed look on her face. "You're perfectly safe at Hogwarts. Dad says Dumbledore's the only wizard that You-Know-Who ever feared."

"But who _is_ You-Know-Who. Surely that can't be his name."

At this, James looked extremely uncomfortable.

"We say You-Know-Who because people are afraid, Lily. I'll tell you, alright, but don't go saying it everywhere because you'll freak people out, okay?"

Lily nodded, "Yeah, okay, fine."

"His name's Voldemort."

"Voldemort?"

"Yeah. Voldemort and his group of Death Eaters. Snape's dad was one, and I bet he's being recruited up the minute he finishes Seventh Year, the little idiot-"

"Come on now, leave Sev alone!"

James stared at Lily with a blank expression on his face. "_Sev_? You call him _Sev_?"

"Severus is my friend, so you just shut up about him, alright?"

"Severus? Is your friend?"

"Yes, he is, and I don't believe a word of what you're saying about him being a Death Eater or whatever it is. He's not like that. He's really nice."

James could see that Lily was clearly getting worked up – her eyes were shining with panicky tears – and though he knew it would only aggravate her, James could still not suppress the bubble of laughter that was threatening to emerge in roars.

"You… ha… you're friends with _Sev_… ha ha ha… Bloody hell, Lily… ha ha… I thought you were alright." James closed his eyes in hysterical laughter, captured in his hilarity. He heard a slam, and shortly afterwards he opened his eyes – just in time to see Lily's light green eyes turn dark with fury as she held her wand aloft, pointing directly at the bridge of his nose.

"You shut up about Sev, James Potter, you stay away from me and you keep your unhelpful, arrogant, _ridiculous_ comments and suggestions to yourself. Do you understand?"

James, thankfully, had the good sense to stop laughing and look solemn.

"Yeah, yeah, I understand. Just don't… er… don't poke my eye out with that thing, yeah?"

Lily let out a roar of frustration. With a flick of her wand, she cried, "_Petrificus Totalus_!" And sent James tumbling towards the floor, paralysed. Lily took one last disdainful glance at the stiff body of James Potter lying on the floor in front of her, his eyes wildly searching from one side of the room to the other, helpless to do anything but plead longingly, silently, for Lily to let him up. She didn't.

"Thanks for the information, _Potter_."

---

The first meeting of Lily Evans and James Potter, disastrous as it was, was one that neither of them ever forgot.

---

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**A/N: The person to whom this chapter is dedicated knows who they are. **

**Please review!**


	2. In Which There is a Birthday

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**Second Year**

When James Potter awoke from a strange dream on the morning of the 30th of January, he knew instantly that something was different about that day. He peered through a gap in his curtains and around his dormitory, where the other three members were still in their beds. Remus Lupin – alright, but definitely bookwormish. Peter Pettigrew – a bit of a loser, but good-natured enough. Sirius Black… a bit of an idiot, but really almost as bright as James himself. It had taken James almost an entire school year to be convinced that Sirius wasn't about to murder him in his sleep, but since the beginning of the year the two of them had been almost inseparable.

James yawned and got out of bed, before reaching for his curtains and drawing them back completely, so they gathered neatly at the four corners of his bed frame. He got out of bed, rubbing his bleary eyes and making his way towards the door to the staircase. As he reached the door he heard some shouts. He stiffened, suddenly completely alert and awake, and gripped his wand tighter as he opened the door quietly. It creaked, and suddenly there was silence from down the stairs. He frowned, his eyes widening a little, and he slowly made his way down the stairs, wand held firmly in front of him, just in case—

"SURPRISE!"

"AAAAAAAAH!" James jumped with fright and yelled at the top of his lungs at the sight of twenty people jumping out in front of him, arms waving in the air. "WHAT THE BLOODY HELL IS GOING ON?"

"You're not Lily!" some smart arse in the crowd yelled out, and James rolled his eyes.

"Yes, thanks for that. What in Merlin's name are you doing?"

"It's Lily Evans' birthday today," said Alice Price, a girl that James recognised as the fifth year prefect who sometimes held a study group for Potions – the girl was brilliant with cauldrons.

"You mean to say that you woke me up and scared the living CRAP out of me for _LILY EVANS_?" James said, indignant. "The self-righteous hot-head who can't tell the difference between a house-elf and a goblin?"

"Yes," A girl's voice carried over from just behind James. He gulped. "One self-righteous hot-head, coming up."

The crowd whispered scandalously. Someone – probably the same person who'd made the intelligent remark about James not being a red headed girl earlier – yelled, "Guys, she's here!"

"Lily," Sarah Weste, a fellow First year, said, quietly, "we wanted to hold a surprise party for you. So… surprise!"

Lily's eyes lit up with pleasure – then faded as she looked at James again.

"You held a surprise party for me and invited the biggest prat in Gryffindor?"

"No, no, it was supposed to be just the girls… he gatecrashed."

At this, James looked around the room indignantly, jaw hanging open.

"I'm not gatecrashing! You were screaming so loud I'm surprised you didn't have Professor Dumbledore coming in to find out what all the racket was about! And," he said, turning specifically to Lily, "I may be the biggest prat in Gryffindor, but at least I'm not the biggest swot in Britain!"

"Go away, Potter. No boys allowed," Lily said, and the other girls laughed, some of them chanting 'no boys' rhythmically and repetitively.

"You're in the common room!" James yelled, his eyes wide with incredulity. "How are boys supposed to not pass through?"

"Well, I don't know," Lily began. "You seem to think you're pretty smart, why don't _you_ find a way out?"

And she turned around to the excited chattering of the crowd in front of her and walked forward to accept a hat and a huge pile of presents waiting for her on one of the study desks. James stood, mouth still hanging open.

"That's it," he said to himself, quietly. "That's it."

He marched resolutely back up towards his dormitory. When he opened the door, he found Sirius and Remus were getting out of bed.

"I'm calling a meeting!" James yelled, as loud as he possibly could. Pettigrew fell out of his bed with a dull thud and a groan.

"James, it's nine in the morning. We've only just woken up. Give it a rest, would you?" Sirius said, rubbing the sleep his eyes. James shook his head.

"Downstairs there's an army of girls waiting to attack any boys that try to get into the common room. It's Lily Evans' birthday, see, and they're holding a party."

"What?" Remus said, eyebrows raised.

"Yeah," James replied, nodding eagerly, "they've banned all boys from the Common Room."

"But they can't do that – did you tell them they can't do that?" Peter asked uselessly.

"Of course I did. They responded by ignoring me." Beside him, Sirius snorted derisively. "Evans herself did say something rather interesting though…" James continued, trailing off. He could tell that he was piquing the other boys' interests.

"What? What did she say?" Peter asked eagerly. James could have sworn he saw Remus roll his eyes.

"She said, 'you seem think you're pretty smart – figure out a way to get out yourself'. And," James continued, the shadow of a grin beginning to appear on his face, "If I'm not mistaken, that was something of a challenge I feel that it would be our duty to undertake."

Peter looked at his fingers in confusion while the other three grinned at each other. Sirius looked up at Peter and slapped his forehead in exasperation.

"Mate, it means that we're going to pull a few tricks over the girls downstairs, alright?"

"Oh," Peter said, grinning toothily. "Okay."

"So what did you have in mind?" Sirius asked eagerly. James grinned, sensing a kindred spirit.

"Well, I'm not sure yet, but just off the top of my head… some products from our good friends at Zonko's and a bit of magic."

"Erm… Zonko's?" Remus interjected, confused. James, Sirius and Peter grinned at each other.

"You'll see," Sirius said ominously. James and Peter grinned at each other.

---

The damage was done.

The Gryffindor Common Room, in its entirety, was drenched in fourteen pints of Zonko's Patented Exploding Multi-Coloured Goo, bubbles of the stuff still occasionally puffing to about the diameter of a dinner plate before bursting unceremoniously over the closest person to it. A few girls sat, sulking and in tears, in a group, gathered in the only corner of the room that had not been layered with slime that changed colour ever couple of seconds.

A few girls were giggling good naturedly, playfully throwing balls of slime at each other, while most of the boys who had emerged from their dormitories to see what had been causing such a raucous commotion were hysterical with laughter that came in roars, among them Sirius Black and Peter Pettigrew. Remus was glancing guiltily over to the crying girls in the corner, making his way over to them to try and comfort them. James, however, was standing in the middle of it all, being confronted with the indescribable rage of Lily Evans.

"_How dare you? _We were just in here, not hurting anymore, having a good time! You ruined it!"

"You told me that boys couldn't come into the Common Room!" James retorted indignantly. "Something had to be done!"

"So you decided to reduce my friends and I to tears? Nice, Potter, I can see your mother taught you well-"

"DON'T YOU SAY A WORD AGAINST MY MOTHER!" James roared, furious.

"I'll say whatever I damn well please, Potter," Lily said, and James felt a twinge of regret swimming around in his stomach as he saw tears form in Lily's eyes. "I was just kidding, we were all just kidding, and you _knew_ that, you _knew _it, but you had to take it a step too far, didn't you?" She was no longer bothering to try and hide her tears now – they flowed freely down her face. James felt like his stomach was trying to haul itself up his throat, and after a moment he realised he felt guilty for making her so upset.

"Look, we were just having a bit of fun, right? We were just playing around."

"This is your idea of fun? Upsetting people, making them feel bad? Ruining other people's birthdays?" Lily asked, gesturing around her as she spoke. "You're just as arrogant as I thought you were – you don't care about anyone but yourself, do you?"

"That's not true-"

"Right, of course not, and I'm the Queen of England."

"Look, I'm sorry."

Lily stared at him flatly and didn't say a word. She turned away from him to begin cleaning up the rest of the Common Room with '_Scourgify_', gesturing for students to come to her to be cleaned off. James stood behind her, waiting for something else to happen. It didn't.

"I'm still sorry," James said, and, feeling dully ashamed of himself, walked away.

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**A/N: Please review. **


	3. In Which There is Eavesdropping

**A/N: A couple of people have noticed that in the first chapter, James says that Snape's father was a Death Eater. I am now aware that he is a muggle. This will be addressed and rectified in the fourth chapter. Cheers! **

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**Fifth Year**

"Oh, Remus, thank God it's you," Lily Evans said steadily as she took her seat in a compartment of the Hogwarts Express and eyed the shining badge pinned to the boy's chest. The air had the clean and crisp feel that early September brought to London, a perfect day to start the school year. "For a moment I was terrified –"

"That I would be James?" Remus replied, smirking knowingly.

"Well," Lily began embarrassedly, "yes."

"It's okay," he laughed good-naturedly, sending a peculiar tingle down Lily's spine. "You're safe with me." And though he was clearly joking, Lily could not help but feel a certain relief flooding through her.

"So what did you do over your summer holiday?" She asked him, trying to fight the blush that was creeping onto her cheeks. This could not be happening – it was _Remus_, for God's sake, one of her best friends. James Potter's best friend.

"Oh, nothing much," he answered vaguely. "Stayed with James and Sirius for a while."

"Potter and Black?" Lily asked. "That's a fair bit of travelling, going to and from. Doesn't Potter live in Wales?"

Remus nodded, and leant in to whisper, "Sirius ran away from home. He's living with James now."

Lily was shocked. "But… but he's only fifteen."

"Yeah, but… well, his family's all evil, isn't it? Sirius isn't like that at all; I'm not particularly surprised he wanted get away from them as soon as he could."

"I guess," Lily replied, but she was still perturbed. What kind of horrible things could happen to make someone want to run away from home? She was rocked out of her reverie when she realised that Remus was speaking to her. "Sorry? I missed that," she told him, flushing with embarrassment. He grinned and shook his head.

"Don't worry about it. I was just asking what you did over your holidays."

"Oh," Lily paused, thinking. "Nothing much, I don't think. Read a lot."

"Oh, really? Which authors?"

"I just finished Jane Austen's Complete Works, it's really very –"

"MOONY!"

Lily was interrupted by the excited voice of James Potter carrying through the train carriages.

"I was wondering where you'd gone, I-" James started energetically, bursting through the compartment doors before noticing Lily. He reached up and ruffled the back of his head, before leaning against the compartment door and saying casually, "What's going on, Evans?"

"Well, you just walked in, so, naturally, I'm now throwing up in my mouth."

"Gross."

"Hey, the effect you have on women is undeniable, Potter, you've said it yourself."

"Most women don't throw up in their mouths when they see me."

"Yes, I'd imagine that most of them would lack that kind of self control. Is that why you always smell so bad? Mass projectile vomiting?"

James sniffed his armpit before glaring and Lily in protest. "I don't smell bad!"

"Whatever," Lily said, and gathered her things to go and meet with her friends in their usual compartment. She turned to Remus with a shy smile. "Remus, I'll see you around?"

Remus smiled back. "Sure."

When she left, James stared wide-eyed at Remus, who was fiddling with the clasp of his prefect badge.

"You backstabbing bastard," James said dangerously, and the other three boys in the compartment looked up at him in unified shock.

"James, mate… what are you talking about?" Sirius asked, looking from Remus to James.

"He…" James began, turning a deep shade of purple. "He was flirting with Lily!"

Remus started laughing. "Of course I wasn't, you nit. She's your girl, always will be."

James continued eyeing Remus suspiciously.

"And, besides which," Sirius said cautiously, "we're talking about Remus. If anyone was going to be chatting up a pretty girl, it would be me, yes?"

"I… suppose…" James conceded, still staring at Remus.

"Well, James and I did some research on the summer holidays," Sirius said hastily. The subject change was obvious, but nonetheless welcome. He began speaking, but quickly cut himself off and placed a silencing spell on the door, so they couldn't be overheard. Unfortunately, the doors had been placed with an overriding charm to prevent spells like that being cast, so it just bounced back towards them and out the window. "and it looks like we have everything we need for The Project."

Peter and Remus looked up at the two of them, surprised.

"Are you sure we're ready for this?" Peter asked, ever the cautious one. "I mean, we're talking about breaking the law here, and becoming Animagi is a huge thing-"

"We're ready," Sirius said bluntly. "As we'll ever be, we're ready. We even worked out what animals we're all going to turn into. Look, it's quite easy to work it out, you just take your birthday and multiply it by the year you were born, then divide that number by the number of numbers in the end number… well, anyway, you end up with a final number and it corresponds with an animal in the book we got."

James nodded, "Yeah, Sirius turns into a dog, Peter turns into a rat and I turn into a stag. The funny thing is, we did Remus as well, just for a laugh, and his was an arctic wolf."

"I don't think it's funny," Remus said, slamming his book shut. The other three exchanged glances.

"Of course, mate," Peter said, after a pause. "We didn't mean it like that at all."

"Look, I'm sorry Remus," James said, taking a seat opposite the fair-haired boy who had his arms folded across his chest. "We came up with some nicknames, too, cos we figured it would be better if we did all this in code."

At this, Remus looked up and smiled reluctantly. He had been pushing James for nicknames since Second Year.

"We thought we'd do them as our animals… so, Remus, we were thinking something like 'Moony' for you…"

"Moony," Remus repeated, smiling. "I like that."

"I'm 'Padfoot'," Sirius said, prodding his chest with his thumbs. "Peter's 'Wormtail' and James is 'Prongs'."

"Those are perfect. But you still don't have to do this, if it gets too hard, if it gets too difficult…"

"Moony, we've talked about this," Sirius said, smiling at the use of the newly enforced nickname. "We stick together. That means none of us get left behind. None of us, no matter what happens."

James smiled. "We're brothers, no matter what – even if you are using your fuzzy werewolf charms to try and steal the love of my life from under my nose."

As the four friends indulged in this enormously squishy fluffy-type moment, they didn't bother to look over their shoulders to where Lily Evans had her nosed practically pressed up against the glass window in the door of their compartment, and even if they had, they never would have guessed that she'd just heard everything that had been said in the last five minutes or so of their conversation.

---

"Hey, Lily, what're you doing?"

Lily looked up from her plate of beef stew, startled.

"It's this thing called eating, Remus. Us humans do that sometimes." At this, Remus' eyes narrowed suspiciously. Lily's eyes widened slightly as she realised how he had interpreted what she had said, and hastily tried to rectify it. "Er… I mean… Us humans. As in, you and me. Because that is what we are. Human."

Lily really needed to work on her verbal skills under pressure.

She was aware of this.

Thankfully, Remus laughed.

"They're having a party on the fourth floor for the prefects tonight. Do you want to go?"

Lily paused, blushing furiously. Was Remus asking her to go as his _date_?

"Won't Potter… I mean, he seems pretty hell-bent on getting me to… you know…"

It was, apparently, Remus' turn to blush, because his cheeks turned red as he spoke; "Well I mean it's not like I'm taking you out on a date or anything. We would just be going to a party together. As friends."

"Right," Lily replied, her cheeks settling down. "As friends. Of course."

"Okay," Remus said, smiling. "I'll see you then?"

Lily smiled as he left, not noticing the figure of James Potter come up behind her and put a hand on her shoulder. She jumped when the contact was made.

"Jesus Christ, Potter, what are you doing, trying to give me a heart attack?"

"You're going to a party with Remus," James said, and he sounded infuriated.

"No, Remus and I are both going to the party and will see each other there. As friends."

"Oh, I'm sure," James snapped. "Is that why you couldn't keep your eyes off him as he left the hall, then?"

Lily shrugged his hand of her shoulder, annoyed. "If you think I care what you think, you're sadly mistaken."

"No, I'm not!"

"What I do or do not do is none of your business!" Lily said loudly, almost shouting. The people seated around them stared up at them from their conversations. Lily waved them away dismissively.

"It is my business."

"No, it's not Potter, just the same as its not any of your business to be doing magic that's far beyond your level!" Lily said, and then regretted the slip. She had been so careful not to say anything to any of the four boys about what she had overheard on the train coming to school.

James blanched. "What are you talking about?" he asked her slowly.

"It's… nothing, Potter, I just… I…" She swallowed, and looked towards the doors. "I have to go and do some study."

James grabbed onto her arm, looking at her in disbelief. "What do you know?"

"I…" Lily started, determined to keep denying that she knew anything at all, until she caught the look on James' face. Utter panic. She sighed. "I overheard the four of you talking on the train the other day."

As she had expected, James' face registered complete shock. "How much do you know?" he asked her, swallowing apprehensively.

"I… know about Moony… and, obviously, the nicknames… and your little illegal project, too."

"You know… you know everything?" James asked her, obviously hoping for her to say 'no'.

"Yes."

James swallowed again, and looked around the room. He took another look at her and said, "Come with me,", so quietly that she almost didn't hear him, before walking towards Sirius and Peter and leading Lily back to the Gryffindor Tower. Once in the Common Room, James found Remus and the five of them went up the stairs to the Boy's dormitory. Lily had never been up there before. She had never really had any reason to.

"Gentlemen, we have a problem," James began, and Lily blushed at being addressed so – it was clear, in her mind, that she herself was the problem. "It appears that Lily here knows some things about us that she shouldn't."

Remus stiffened on the bed behind James. Sirius looked confusedly between James and Lily for a moment, before saying loudly, "Prongs, mate, I think the game is up – Lily knows about how you have feelings for her."

James smacked the back of Sirius' head.

"I think," Remus said, quietly, "that James was rather referring to The Project."

Sirius and Peter gaped at each other while Remus hung his head, suddenly appearing to be extremely interested in his fingernails.

"Yes," Lily said in a small voice, because she thought that if she was going to say something, now would be as good a time as any, "I do know. I… erm… I know about Remus and your 'Project', as you're calling it, and the nicknames. I overheard you talking about it on the train."

"What?" James exclaimed, livid. He swivelled on the spot to Sirius. "I thought you took care of sound-proofing the compartment!"

At this, Sirius looked genuinely confused. "I… I thought I did."

"Well, evidently not, because someone found out!" James replied.

"Well, look, it's okay!" Lily said suddenly. The four boys looked around at her indignantly. "I'm not going to tell anyone, am I? Despite the fact that what you're doing is illegal, it's really advanced magic, so I'm…" She faltered. "I'm kind of impressed."

"But it's not just about the animagus thing, is it?" Remus said, standing up. Lily turned to face him directly. She noticed that he was developing a twitch above his right eyebrow. "It's about me too. What I am."

"Remus, it doesn't matter to me-"

"Yes, of course you'll say that now, but it will matter to you sooner or later," Remus said, and ran his fingers through his hair absent-mindedly. "It always does."

"That's ridiculous!" Lily cried, and stepped forward. "You're a good person, Remus. And so you're a bit cranky every few days out of the month – I challenge you to find a single teenage girl who isn't!"

Remus smiled, albeit reluctantly, and James looked at her appreciatively. It looked to her as though he was about to explode, but he later told her that it was how he showed his pride. Lily chose not to question it.

---

Though she would hate herself for it for many years, Lily Evans no longer felt, after this incident had occurred, the blush that crept silently onto her cheeks or the tingle down her spine when she spoke to Remus – those feelings she came to associate with James Potter.

And she would never know, really, whether it was finding out about Remus' lycanthropy that changed her feelings, or if it was the way that James was smiling insanely at her afterwards.

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**A/N: Please review. **


	4. In Which There Are Revelations

**A/N: Yay... new chapter, and hmm, I seem to be updating at the speed of light. I'm glad I've managed to get my writing flow back - and I think this isn't bad for 45 minutes or so. Enjoy!

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****Sixth Year**

"I don't see why I should be listening to this, Severus," Lily said bitterly. "I thought I made my feelings towards you pretty clear."

Severus Snape's head moved in and out of the shadows in the darkness – the effect would be, Lily imagined, quite intimidating if she didn't know who she was talking to.

"So six years of friendship? Just gone? You can't erase history like that, Lily."

"You know," Lily snapped, losing her temper, "it's funny. I find it's also pretty hard to erase the memory of your so called 'friend' calling you a Mudblood. It's disgusting. You disgust me."

Snape seemed genuinely shocked by this, hurt and regret registering on his face.

"Lily, I apologised for that."

"Yeah."

Snape paused, incredulous. "So I'm sorry! Look, I know that I'm not exactly the person that you want to see right now," (Lily snorted contemptuously) "but I have to tell you something!"

"I think you've done enough talking, Severus," and she turned to walk away.

"Lily, I almost died tonight."

Well, she couldn't say the boy didn't have flair when it came to the element of surprise.

---

"Evans! Oi!"

Lily did not even bother to turn around as she walked back from her Care of Magical Creatures class. She knew exactly who she would be looking at if she did, and she'd had enough of looking at slimy, useless pests for one day.

"What do you want, Potter?"

James slowed as he caught up to her, catching his breath.

"Just to say hello."

"In what language does 'hello' translate to 'oi'?"

"My language. Look, would you slow down for a second?" James said angrily. "I'm trying to apologise."

"Apologise?" At this, Lily took on a look of faux surprise. "Whatever do you have to apologise for?"

"I know that _Snivellus_ probably-"

"His name's Severus, you moronic Flobberworm, and he's a better person than you'll ever be."

James started to laugh, but caught the look on Lily's face and held his hand up in front of his face as he turned it into a cough. The result was something like a hiccup.

"Alright, fine; I know that _Snape_ probably told you all about what happened down at the Whomping Willow the other night and you seemed pretty upset, so I wanted to apologise."

Lily stared, unblinking, into James face. He looked around nervously.

"You useless twat," Lily said, after an extended pause. "You useless, stupid, _stupid_ twat."

"Lily?" James asked, a drop of trepidation lingering on his voice.

"I'm not the one you should be apologising to!"

"What, you want me to apologise to Sirius? Please, he's the one that should-""

"No, you moron, not Sirius, _Severus._"

James stopped. "You want me to apologise to Snive- Snape?" he ended hastily. Lily nodded, and James noticed the dangerous twinkle in her eye. He needed to get out of dodge, or fix this, or both. "Lily, you don't know what went on down there…"

"I know enough," Lily said, and all at once, she looked close to tears. James saw her eyelids flutter, and his heart did a few back flips. She drew in a long sigh and tucked her hair behind her ears – forget back flips; James' heart was doing an entire gymnastic floor routine. "I know enough to know that you almost _killed_ my first friend here, the only person who made me feel like I wasn't stupid. Seven years, Severus and I have been friends, _seven years_, and then some arrogant twat like you comes along and thinks he can take that away from me because he's _bored_?"

"Lily," James said, genuinely taken aback, "I didn't mean to-"

"Upset me, yeah, _I know_," Lily replied sarcastically, and all at once began walking faster towards her next class, her footsteps echoing, bouncing off the stone walls surrounding them. She did not even look over her shoulder as she cried out, in fury, "When are you going to grow up, Potter?"

It was three days before James next attempted to speak to Lily. Truth be known, though he would never admit it to anyone, he was a little afraid of her. She was sitting out by the lake, drawing her legs close to her body and clutching at her shins as she leaned against a birch tree. As James approached, Lily spoke without even looking in his direction.

"I'm peaceful, Potter."

"Erm… what?"

"Peaceful," Lily explained, still not moving her head, "Content. At one with my thoughts. A difficult concept for you to understand, I'm sure, being unable to produce any thoughts to be at one with in the first place. So don't disturb my contentedness, or I may have to hurt you. No, actually, I will hurt you. Badly. More than once."

"You think you know me." James opened his mouth, and this was the first thing that came out.

"No, Potter, I don't tend to make it a habit to get to know chimpanzees. I find that you lot generally aren't great conversationalists."

"Don't presume to think that just because Severus Snape told you his side of the story that that's all there is to it," James said. He was surprised to find himself getting irrationally upset. "He only knows what he saw. And he did not see everything."

"What else could possibly have happened?" Lily asked angrily.

"I saved him, Lily!"

James' outburst hung precariously over the silence that had suddenly settled over the two of them. Lily looked at James, and he was immensely satisfied to see genuine surprise on her face.

"What?"

"That's right," James said bitterly. "Sirius thought it would be funny to lead Snape down there, let him get a bit riled up. He let slip some clues, enough to let Snape know that something was going on down at the willow tree, and opened the entrance just before Snape arrived. Sirius, you know, he's my best mate, but he's the thickest person on the _planet. _So I find out, and I run down there in the middle of the night with McGonagall chasing me about being out of bed after hours, and almost get beaten up by a bloody tree so that I could make sure Severus doesn't get a large chunk of his arm ripped out."

"I… Oh… but you must have known that Black would-"

"What? Do that kind of thing? We're best mates, Lily, but we're not joined at the hip and, contrary to popular belief at this school, we can't read minds. I did what I could – and that turned out to be saving that sodding miserable git's life."

"See! Even after you know the things he's been subjected to by you and your mates, you still can't just think of Severus as a person!" Lily cried, though she knew she was clutching at straws.

"Just because I saved his life, Lily, doesn't mean I have to like him. It doesn't mean we're going to dress up and go out for tea." Lily opened her mouth to interrupt, but found that she suddenly had nothing to say. "You once told me that I was no better than a Death Eater. No better than prejudiced idiots like _him_. Well _that's _the thing that separates me from them." James paused. "I don't like him. I would even go so far to say that I hate that bastard – but that doesn't mean I think he has to die, it doesn't mean I want him to die. Despite what you or anybody else may think, I'm not arrogant enough to think that the only life worth saving is my own, so why don't you just _back off_?"

Lily paused, and there was a long silence as both James and Lily tried to work out what to say next.

"You weren't right about him, you know," Lily said. James looked confused. "His father's a muggle. His mother was never a Death Eater. None of their family ever worked for Voldemort, nor any other dark wizards."

"_Severus_ going to break the mold, then?" James sneered contemptuously.

"Why can't you just leave him alone?" Lily demanded.

"Because anyone who thinks it's okay to join a group of people who kill and torture innocent people - including Muggles - for _fun_ is always going to get a hard time from me. Always. You should think about that before you get all indignant about defending your _friend._"

"You know, we're not even really friends anymore," Lily admitted awkwardly, after a silence, and James looked sharply at her.

"We were never friends, Lily." James replied sourly, and Lily stopped before saying quietly,

"I was talking about Severus Snape."

There was another long silence.

"That's what I've always wondered," James started slowly. "You were friends with him. You were friends with him and what does he have that I don't have? What makes me so terrible and awful that you can't stand to be around me?"

"You're ridiculously arrogant," Lily said simply.

"So is he."

Lily had to admit James had a point there.

"You're a man-slut," Lily said. James didn't even both to argue.

"Hey, at least I have _some_ social skills."

Lily found that she couldn't refute that point either.

"Look," Lily said angrily, "it's not what's bad about you, necessarily. It's what's better about Severus. Or," she added as an after thought, "what _was_ better…"

"Like what?" James demanded.

"He's a really amazing wizard. He's witty, he makes me laugh, he's intelligent, he has ambition… and he doesn't make me feel like I'm awful."

"I'm an animagus!" James protested. "I'm witty, I can make you laugh too! Okay, I'll tell a joke, alright? There were two muffins, sitting in a little oven. The first muffin said, "Gosh, it's hot in here," and the second muffin said, "AAH! A TALKING MUFFIN!""

Lily could not surpress the bubble of laughter that emerged from somewhere deep in her belly. James just looked and sounded absolutely ridiculous.

"I have ambition too!" James continued. "I want to be an auror, and I had the ambition to become an animagus as well! And as for the other thing… there is only one thing in the whole world that can break my heart, and that is knowing that I'm making you feel awful. I might not know much about the way the female mind works, but I do know that I love the way yours works. Everything about you is just--" He faltered. "Loving you is definitely a new and improved experience."

"Did you come up with that line all by yourself?" Lily asked, trying to look unimpressed.

"All by myself," James confirmed, and smiled. It was distinctly different from his usual cheeky grin – this smile seemed to have sincerity sown into every contour. But as suddenly as it had come, the smile faded, and in its place was contemplative, saddened, more neutral expression. "I just don't understand why you hate me so much."

James looked at Lily once more before flashing her a quick, sad smile and jumping up to walk back towards the castle. It was only when James' retreating back was at least 30 metres away from her that Lily whispered, under her breath, "He loves me."

Lily walked with an odd kind of spring in her step for at least a week and a half.

* * *

**A/N: Next chapter: Lily and James getting it together! Woot! **

**Please review. **


	5. In Which There Are First Kisses

**A/N: So this is finally updated! Yay! **

**Just as an extra piece of trivia, the animal mentioned in this chapter was originally a moose, but I realised that they're all British and hence would probably call it an 'elk' instead... and with all this talk of a moose and an elk I bet you're all wondering what's going on! **

**Read on and find out! **

* * *

The last day of school had approached the students of Hogwarts with such feverous speed that they barely had time to register it before it arrived. It seemed only yesterday that they'd been unpacking their clothes and books and cauldrons, and now, suddenly, they were all packing it up again.

Lily found it all to be a sad order of business, really.

She had put off packing her trunk until the last possible moment, as though in strong defiance of leaving. It would be the last time she would pack up her things for the end of the year with the reassurance that she would be coming back. Next year was The Big One: NEWTs, graduation, and then… the world. What she would do, this time next year, was beyond her.

"Lily, have you seen my hair-straightening potion?"

Adriana Scott, one of three girls who Lily shared a dormitory with, burst through the door, rudely interrupting Lily's train of thought. Lily sighed.

"Did you try under Olivia's bed? She's always taking your things."

"Yes, I did, but-"

"Did you look _under_ her bed, though?"

"What are you talking about?" Adriana asked, confused. Lily rolled her eyes. Olivia had found a loose floorboard under her bed in second year – though she hadn't told anyone, Olivia hadn't exactly been discreet about the find. Adriana must have, somehow, missed all the shows Olivia put on about this floorboard over the last four years.

"Look under her bed. Four boards down from the bed-head, three boards across from the wall. Push on the bottom right-hand corner."

There was a moment's silence, before:

"SUCCESS!" Adriana stood up, clutching a violet bottle. "Cheers, Lily."

As abruptly as she had come in, Adriana was gone.

Damn. Lily was really going to miss those girls over the summer.

---

The Hogwarts Express was slowing to a stop.

Lily, who had spent a good three quarters of the journey to Kings Cross Station sulking by herself in a compartment, grabbed her bags and headed for the doors, having already said goodbye to most of her friends.

Most of them.

"Lily!"

She could recognise James Potter's voice from a mile away.

"Hi, James," Lily said, and allowed herself a smile. He was actually an alright bloke, she had decided, now that his head had deflated and he'd stopped playing with that bloody snitch twenty-four/seven.

"Hey, Lils. I didn't get a chance to say goodbye, before. Thought I'd catch you on the way out." James said, grinning. Lily smiled at him again.

"And catch me you did," Lily said, jokingly, and put a hand on his shoulder – quite a feat, considering he was a good foot taller than her. "Have a good summer, James."

What happened next left James speechless.

That was quite a feat too.

Lily, having just wished James Potter a good summer, reached up and kissed him gently on the cheek.

It took him twenty minutes to find his legs again, and when he finally did, he was smiling all the way back home.

---

The doorbell was ringing. Incessantly.

"Lily, would you get that? _Please_?" Rose Evans yelled up the stairs to her daughter from a cavernous kitchen so well tiled that her voice echoed through the house without too much effort. "I've got my hands wrapped around a turkey."

Lily appeared at the top of the stairs.

"I will if you promise never to say that again in my presence," she replied, and her mother blushed.

"Just get the bloody door, would you?" And Rose scuttled back into the kitchen. Lily sighed resignedly, and went to open the door.

"Hello-?"

No other words came out.

"Evans?" Sirius Black's voice echoed around her. Lily gulped.

"Sirius?"

The two stood in uncomfortable silence for a minute, though it might as well have been an hour.

"What are you doing here?" Sirius asked her, and Lily hesitantly answered:

"This is our holiday house. We live here in the summer holidays."

Sirius just smiled inanely at her.

"What are _you_ doing here?" Lily continued, when she got no reply. "Don't you live in Wales with James?"

"We're here on a holiday. Mrs P. sent me over to borrow something called a 'deckchair'."

Lily mentally slapped herself on the forehead. She was, after all, holidaying in Brighton, and was, after all, surrounded by four different tourist accommodation buildings.

"Oh," she said, then added as an afterthought, "How do you not know what a deckchair is?"

Sirius shrugged.

Nothing else was said for at least three minutes.

"So…" Lily began, awkwardly, "Would you like the deckchair?"

Sirius nodded, and then stopped. "You should come round and say hello. James'll piss himself."

"Lovely."

---

"James! Prongs, mate, I've got a surprise for you!"

Sirius' calls echoed through the surprisingly roomy chalet that the Potters had rented out for their holiday. James' head appeared to pop out of a door frame.

"What?" James demanded, "What do you want?"

"Look what I found!" Sirius said excitedly, and dragged Lily out into the open from the safety of the front door. Immediately James straightened up – his whole body miraculously appearing – and clearing his throat, he smiled.

"Lily! What are you doing here?"

"I live in Brighton during the summer," Lily replied, and James beamed.

"Urgh, I'm so jealous. I'd love to live around here."

"Not when it rains, you wouldn't. Nothing to do but sit in and wait for it to stop."

There was yet another awkward silence. Lily would have laughed if the situation hadn't been so uncomfortable, deciding to keep a tally in her head.

"So how long you here for?" Lily asked, to neither of the boys in particular, and they both started to answer at once.

"A few weeks-"

"Only a couple of days-"

Lily looked at them, raising her eyebrows. James and Sirius exchanged confused glances, and James took a step forward, closer to her.

"We've been here for a couple of day, and we're staying for a few weeks," he said, inching closer to her again.

"Oh, great. I suppose I'll be seeing you around?" Lily said, giving James a small smile before turning to Sirius and nodding in acknowledgement – albeit a little less friendly than she had intended. She set the collapsed chairs in her arms down on the wooden floor of the room, and gave the two boys one last smile before walking out of the door and heading back to her holiday home just across the way.

Lily did not see either of them for the rest of the day, but she could have sworn, as she settled into bed, that she heard a deep voice wailing from across the street:

"I don't think I could have been more moronic if I tried! She'll never go out with me now! And I can't believe you didn't help her carries the chairs over, you useless twit!"

She grinned to herself wickedly.

---

"Oh my God, what are you doing?"

These were the first words that came out of Lily Evans mouth as she approached the Potter's little chalet across the road. It had been three days since she had first seen them here – a suitable amount of time, she thought – and since there'd been no word from either of the boys, it seemed up to her to make the first move.

What she saw upon her arrival, however, rather made her wish she hadn't moved at all.

Sirius was standing in the middle of a long grassy run that carried down the side of the chalet, wearing nothing but an overlarge pair of boxer shorts. Sadly, this wasn't the most disturbing thing about the scene. A giant four legged creature was tethered to a tree on the opposite end of the lawn, and Sirius was cooing at it almost _lovingly_. As Lily approached nearer, she realised that the animal was, of all things, an elk.

Not something one generally found at British seaside resorts.

"Sirius?" she called, when she got no reply. "What the hell are you doing?"

He spun around when he heard her call his name, and grinned recklessly at her.

"Evans! What does it look like I'm doing, silly?"

"Uh…" The question caught Lily off guard. "Practising an interpretive dance routine?"

"Tsk, don't be daft," Sirius admonished. "I'm wooing an elk."

"May I inquire as to why you've chosen to woo an elk?"

"Always loved elks," Sirius replied nonchalantly, turning back to the poor creature who was now understandably cowering in the far corner of the lawn, its huge antlers casting a shadow across the grass.

"Okey-dokey," said Lily uncomfortably, rubbing her hands together. "Is there anyone sane around?"

"Well, there's me."

James Potter's voice wafted from around the corner. Lily smiled.

"I think you misheard. I said 'sane'."

"Oh, ouch, Evans. You're breaking my heart here," James replied, and strolled around to greet her. "Sirius here is just coming to terms with his-"

"Newly discovered leanings towards bestiality?"

"Well, there's that," James grinned, "But I was actually going to say 'unrequited love for elks'. Which, I suppose, is the same thing…"

A disturbing thought suddenly occurred to Lily.

"Sirius does realise that's a… a male elk, doesn't he?"

James' eyes widened, and he laughed menacingly as he said, "I won't tell if you won't."

Suddenly, a loud _thud_ caused Lily and James to jump and spin on the spot to face Sirius – he'd taken a running jump at the elk and it had, consequently, head-butted him in the stomach.

Lily had to suppress a laugh as Sirius, obviously winded, tried to stand himself up, saying, "Tough love, sweetheart, I get it."

"You want to go for a walk?" James said, turning back to Lily. He seemed completely untroubled by the events that had just unfolded.

"Alright."

James grinned and held Lily's shoulder to steer her away from the house and down the road.

"Okay, the truth is I may have given him a little bit of Essence of Creativity. It may have made him a little, uh, crazy."

Lily was confused. "But Essence of Creativity shouldn't have that kind of effect! It should just make him want to write a heap of poetry."

"Yes," James grinned mischievously down at her, "except I added some burnt puffskein feet. It countered out the countering-out effects in the potion."

"Meaning?"

"There was some peppermint in it, to reduce excess giddiness and recklessness."

"Of course! Puffskein feet neutralizes that – in fact, it actually has the opposite effect. So essentially, he's been pumped full of a complete inhibitions exhibitor."

"Exactly. I call it 'Elixir to Reduce Sobriety'."

"So you're telling me that he may as well be drunk?"

"Pretty much."

"James, that's really incredible magic."

"You're magic."

Lily paused, and James flushed with embarrassment.

"Sorry, I didn't mean for that to come out sounding quite so… blunt."

Lily smiled shyly, and took a step closer towards him.

"That's alright. Thank you."

Her heart pounding madly in her chest, she put her hands of either side of James' arms, and in a second closed the distance between the two of them in a kiss. James, she could feel, was very taken aback, but it didn't take him long to kick his brain into gear and start kissing her back. He slid a hand under her hair, supporting her head, and another around her back.

Lily had no idea what on earth possessed to her to kiss James Potter; but here she was, kissing him like nobody's business, and as luck would have it she didn't need to know why she was kissing him because she found herself thoroughly not caring after the reason.

He was, after all, an extraordinarily good kisser.

After a few more moments, they broke apart. James looked as though he had just been told that it was going to be Christmas forever. Lily ducked her head shyly, and looked at her feet, not knowing quite what to say. James' hands were still resting under her hair and on her back.

"I don't understand, Lily," James said after a while, breaking the silence. She continued looking at her feet. "I thought you didn't like me much, least of all like _that_."

"I… I suppose… I was being deliberately misleading," she replied, and immediately regretted it. A simple 'I've changed my mind' would have lead to a lot less questions. She decided to compromise.

"Why?"

"Because I changed my mind, but I didn't really want to admit it. But… I mean…" She stopped, swallowed, and then tried again. "You're a good man, James. Whatever else you may be, I can't deny you're that."

That, apparently, was enough explanation for him, because as soon as she'd finished he went right back to kissing her.

She didn't object.

---

It was dark by the time that James and Lily had managed to find their way back to James' chalet, but it became clear, as they approached the house together, hand-in-hand, that the sunset had not deterred Sirius at all. In fact—

"HOLY MOTHER OF MERLIN, SIRIUS, STOP SNOGGING THAT BLOODY ELK!"

James was laughing so hard that he was doubled over on the ground, while Lily was yelling at the top of her voice in shock. Sirius looked over at the two of them, and bounded across the lawn towards them.

"It was our first kiss!"

"Yeah, that seems to be going around tonight," James replied through his laughter, and Lily reproachfully nudged him in the stomach with her foot.

"Sirius, you're not in your right mind. How can you possibly think it's alright to snog an elk?"

"You know, an elk is also called a moose."

"OH MY GOD!"

"Woah, Evans, calm down!"

Lily was at the end of her tether. "Sirius, go to my house and ask my mother very politely for all the peppermint we have in the kitchen. As soon as you get it, put it all in your bloody cake-hole and chew, alright?"

Sirius nodded childishly and marched off towards Lily's house, leaving James scowling at his friend's retreating form.

"Why'd you do that? It was just getting good!"

"Yeah, well, I'm just about to eat dinner, and I can't handle seeing Sirius kiss an elk again."

"I suppose, if you're squeamish—" But James was interrupted by a call that came thundering from across the street.

"Evans, I don't think I did this right! Which hole did you say to put it in?"

_Well_, Lily thought to herself, _I won't be able to say that I've had a boring summer_.

* * *

**Please review. **


	6. In Which There is Sabotage

**Seventh Year**

For once in Sirius Black's rather seasoned career as the school's most scandalous student, the gossip that ricocheted steadily between castle walls by the third week of October wasn't about him. Not entirely, anyway. The fact that James Potter and Lily Evans seemed to be an item of some kind had sent a strange sort of shockwave through the Hogwarts community of students and teachers alike – in fact, he could have sworn he saw Professor Dumbledore wink slyly at James as he walked to his seat in the Great Hall before turning to Professor McGonagall and saying, "Didn't I tell you, Minerva? You owe me a Butterbeer."

It was out of the natural order of things. It wasn't right.

James and Lily snogging like some bloody re-enactment of Romeo and Juliet? Holding hands as they walk each other to class?

The mere thought was vomit-inducing.

No, it wasn't natural at all.

Something had to be done.

---

"Prongs, mate, I have to tell you something," Sirius said slyly, sitting down in the Gryffindor Common Room at a rare moment when Lily wasn't trying to suck James' poor mouth off.

"Hmm?" James looked up from The Daily Prophet and shook his head. "What?"

"Listen, mate…"

And here was where he stumbled. Amongst all his planning, he'd forgotten to think of something incriminating he could tell Prongs about Lily.

"Mm?" James was starting to look bored. Sirius, realising he was losing James, spoke without thinking.

"I snogged Lily."

Crap. Crap, crap, crap.

James looked murderous for a second, and then, to Sirius' great indignation, burst out laughing.

"What?"

"Well," Sirius said, desperately trying to back-pedal, "Maybe 'snogged' wasn't a great choice of words, it was more like… uh… spooned."

James looked significantly less amused. In fact, he was starting to look murderous again.

"No, no! No, it wasn't spooning so much as… um… hugging tightly."

A beat. "Padfoot, what are you doing?"

"Trying to piss you off?"

"Yes," James conceded. "Why?"

"Uh… I…" _ABORT MISSION, YOU BLOODY IDIOT! ABORT MISSION! _"I… You did better than me in our last Astronomy essay?"

"No I didn't. I got a T. Mixed up Jupiter and the Sun on the star map."

Oh. That's right.

"I want to shag Evans."

He reminded himself to not say _anything_ ever again.

"Sirius?"

Sirius replied, cowering slight, "Yeah?"

SMACK.

Sirius held his fast-swelling jaw and staggered up to the dormitory, swearing that he could make out every single one of James' right knuckles indented in his face.

"Note to self," he said quietly, sitting down on his bed. "Work out a plan that doesn't involve personal injury."

---

After this debacle with James, Sirius decided that perhaps Lily would be an easier target. It wasn't hard to corner her on a Thursday morning on the walk between Care of Magical Creatures and Potions.

"Evans! Wait!"

Sirius was relieved to see her slow to a stop and turn to face him, smiling amicably.

"Hi. You going to Potions?"

Sirius nodded, and the two of them walked on towards the castle.

"So, how are you and James?"

Lily raised an eyebrow. "Alright, I suppose. How are you and James?"

Here, Sirius saw an opportunity.

"Great, really great. Not in a homosexual love way, but great," Sirius said, and Lily cracked a smile. Sirius pressed on, "He's been looking a bit down lately, though. I mean... I only ask about you and James because... well..."

"Yes?"

"James is a bit worried you want to dump him."

Lily stopped, looking shocked. "WHAT?"

"Yeah."

"Why?"

"Well," Sirius said, trying to fight off a grin, "what with him not seeing as much of you as he'd like..." At this, Sirius raised his eyebrows suggestively.

Lily's expression turned stony. "What?"

"He's worried you're not attracted to him anymore. With a history like his, not getting any is a _blow_ to his reputation, if you'll pardon the pun..."

SMACK.

Sirius clutched the other side of his face, eyes watering. Lily had some serious upper-arm strength for a girl.

---

As it turned out, neither of his bruises were worth the effort. James and Lily had a short spat, but, realising that neither had a problem with the other, quickly went back to going doe-eyed at each other.

---

Sirius was steadily running out of ideas.

---

"Oi, Lily! JAMES THINKS YOU'RE A HOE!"

---

It had been a week, and Lily and James were getting to the end of their tethers with Sirius. A confrontation was thoroughly in order. The two of them had strategically cornered Sirius while he was half-heartedly trying to complete a Transfiguration essay that he had left until the night before it was due – that way, they had deduced, Sirius would be by himself in the Common Room and wouldn't be able to make a scene.

(Though, privately, Lily thought it was more likely that James made something of a scene than Sirius.)

"Padfoot, we need to talk," James said, taking a seat next to Sirius by the fire. He gestured for Lily to follow.

Sirius looked up, feigning hesitance.

"You're not… you're not breaking up with me, are you Prongs?"

"Sirius," Lily said, frowning, "do you have some kind of mental disorder?"

"Mentally disordered? Me? Never!"

James coughed. "Yeah, well, be that as it may, that's not actually what we wanted to talk about."

"Well what then? I'm a busy man. Got things to do, people to see. Observe me with the… busyness."

"James and I know you're trying to upset both of us," Lily started. Sirius pulled a ridiculously affronted look onto his face.

"I deny and refuse to accept this outlandish allegation," Sirius said, and crossed his arms and huffed loudly. James and Lily shot each other a knowing look.

"Sirius," James said, "Sorry mate, but the jig is up."

"'The jig is up'? What _jig_? What does that even mean?" Sirius demanded, flinging his arms around so outrageously that he managed to catch the side of James' head. James, obviously not appreciating Sirius' glibness, grabbed Sirius' arms so hard the skin turned white. Sirius immediately stopped struggling, and looked up at James with doe eyes, batting his eyelashes.

"Your impression of Bambi is really coming along," Lily said, and James and Sirius looked at her confusedly, their previous animosity temporarily forgotten.

"Bambi?" asked Sirius. "Who's that?"

Lily stared, eyes wide, at both boys. "It's.. uh…" she sighed. "Muggle thing. Never mind."

"Yeah, well, anyway…" James began, turning back to Sirius, "Why the hell are you trying to break us up?"

"I didn't want to break up with you Prongs! _Why are you being like this_?"

James stopped and took in a deep breath.

"Sirius, _mate_," James said angrily, "You listen now and you listen good. Stop being such a bloody pillock and answer the goddamn question! _Why_ are you trying to get in between me and Lily?"

"Lily and I…" Sirius corrected, before James lost his temper and swung a heavy fist into Sirius' face.

"JESUS CHRIST, YOU LOT HAVE GOT TO STOP DOING THAT!"

"Then answer the bloody question!" Lily cried. Sirius stopped, and took a dramatic, heaving sigh.

"Alright," he said, and sat up. "Alright. It might be because... erm… well, the thing is… last year it was all about us, you know?" He said, gesturing between himself and James. "And then you two got together and now it's all about… you two."

James stared at Sirius in shock. He had not expected that.

"You're worried that Lily's coming between us?"

"No. Maybe. Yes?"

"Mate, that would never happen! Lily's amazing, and I love her, but you're my best mate."

Lily tapped her foot impatiently. "Can you please not talk about me like I'm not here?"

Sirius and James both ignored her.

"I'm glad for you, I am, I just didn't think we'd be spending so much time apart," Sirius admitted, and James' expression softened again.

"I know, I didn't either. But we'll spend more time together from now on, yeah? We can fix this."

This was getting too much like a soap opera for Lily. She looked at her shoes and pretended to be interested in the laces, giving them a thorough examination.

"I know we can fix this. I want to fix this! I love you, mate."

"I love you too!"

"Erm…" Lily began, looking up from her unravelled shoe laces. "Do you two want some privacy? An empty room? Some candles?"

Sirius and James looked at Lily confusedly, for a moment, before looking back at each other and leaping backwards in disgust.

"Urgh…" James said, holding his hands over his eyes. "The sappiness! The _fluff_! Urgh…"

"We'll just…er… pretend it didn't happen." Sirius said, and James looked up at him, nodding masculinely.

"Right."

"So…" Sirius began, and held out his right hand. James stared at him in horror.

"No! No, no. No contact."

"Yeah."

"Goodnight."

"Night."

And the two boys left the Common Room, staying a good two feet apart from each other as they ascended the stairs to their dormitory.

Lily stayed seated by the fire, staring after James and Sirius.

"What the hell just happened?"

---

For what was very possibly the billionth time in Sirius Black's rather seasoned career as the school's most scandalous student, the gossip that ricocheted between castle walls was purely about him.

"Did you hear? Sirius Black and James Potter… a couple!"

"You know, I always suspected Black."

"But what about Black's... reputation with the ladies?"

"Well it must all be bull, mustn't it? Or him trying to overcompensate. I mean, apparently, he… erm… plays for the other team."

"Apparently."

Lily never was brilliant at keeping gossip a secret.

Even if it was gossip she'd embellished.

Slightly.

---

* * *

**A/N: Hi, hello, long time no write, I know. Very _very_ sorry, it's just been so hectic! Hopefully I will be a lot more prompt in posting Chapter 8. **

**Cheers, and please review! **


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